iPod touch use outpaces iPhone, could foster Apple loyalty - report

A new study of mobile device usage has found that the iPod touch is gaining in share, and suggests that the media player could eventually transition youth to the iPhone.

Mobile analysis firm Flurry this week released its latest Smartphone Industry Pulse report for November 2009. From June to November, the number of mobile device "sessions" by users grew from under 150 million to nearly 400 million. In that same frame, the share of usage for the iPod touch grew from 31 percent to 35 percent, as the iPhone shrunk from 57 percent to 50 percent.

Overall sessions for the iPhone grew from June to November, but its total share of the market decreased, when compared to both the iPod touch and Android -- which also grew 4 percent.

Flurry has interpreted the findings to mean that the iPod touch is "quietly building a loyal base among the next generation of iPhone users." It estimates that just over 40 percent of the 58 million iPhone OS devices sold worldwide through September 2009 are the iPod touch.

"When today's young iPod Touch users age by five years, they will already have iTunes accounts, saved personal contacts to their iPod Touch devices, purchased hundreds of apps and songs, and mastered the iPhone OS user interface," the report said. "This translates into loyalty and switching costs, allowing Apple to seamlessly "graduate" young users from the iPod Touch to the iPhone. For OEMs hoping to challenge Apple, we believe an even greater sense of urgency must be adopted."

The study relied on a sample size of over 3,000 applications used by 45 million consumers over four platforms: the iPhone OS (which includes the iPod touch), Google Android, BlackBerry and Java ME. More than 15 million "end user sessions" are tracked by programs that have the Flurry analytics software included.

Flurry's evidence that the iPod touch is used by teens and youth who are not yet in a position to own the iPhone is bolstered by the growth of the media player as a device for social networking and games. Since June, the share of sessions for the iPod touch for social media has grown by 2 percent, to 42 percent, and its share of game usage has grown by 6 percent, to 49 percent. In both of those categories, the iPod touch outpaced the iPhone and Android.

"Together, Social Networking and Games category usage reflects the strength of the iPod Touch Generation's influence among its peers," the report said. "As this segment increasingly migrates its social habits to smartphones, Flurry data shows that the iPod Touch is the largest beneficiary."

The iPod touch has been seen as a small but stealthy asset in Apple's product lineup. As overall sales of iPods shrink, the iPod touch has grown. In September, Apple released a new 64GB iPod touch with a faster processor boosting performance up to 50 percent.

maybe if there was more than one carrier in the US...why would you want practically the same spotty coverage at t-mobile at nearly double the price?

as soon as the iphone gets on other networks, watch at&t's iphone sales (and subscriber levels) tank. the price of keeping the iphone exclusive will be far too large for at&t to pay. apple can easily say that they can sell 40 million more iphones if it was available on other networks. that's BILLIONS in lost revenue, let's see at&t pony that up.

by the way, if you have t-mobile coverage in your area (not for everybody, you'll want to be in a well populated area), you should be looking at switching. get the nokia n900 with tons more features and then watch yourself save $10 a month by not having a contract, and that means you'll be paying just about half the price of at&t service, especially if you have a family plan. t-mobile is the only company that actually gives you a discount for not locking yourself into a 2 year contract. even if you don't supply your own phone, it's amazing how much more desirable lowly t-mobile's phones are compared to all the crap at&t has. i swear they want to make their other phones worse so you'll just want an iphone.

if you end up hating t-mobile, you can take your unlocked nokia n900 to at&t and waste your money.

i have a regualr ass LG LX5200 that i bought for $20 on ebay and an ipod touch. i have wifi everywhere i go (college student) so any smartphone is a stupid choice. i have no idea why cell phone companies want to force you into a data plan with more than half their phones. it's nickel and diming at its worst; every desirable phone they (at&t especially) have requires a data plan. i would have an iphone with at&t right now if they didn't force the unneeded data plan on me, but i guess they'd rather make $0 from me than $50 per month.

A benefit for Apple is that the Touch UI makes for an easy transition to the iPhone. Android may have the same back-end across the board but varying UIs and HW setups are not going to make it a great cross-over system choice for many users.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

I have not been compelled to "graduate" to iPhone since iPod Touch generation 1. If Apple stops its restrictive contracts with AT&T and allows me to use iPhone with T-Mobile then I will "graduate".

T-Mobile althought small in the USA comparing to AT&T is much bigger company with much more contracts in the world. In general, T-Mobile is much bigger player in the world than AT&T and Verizon taken together globally. It makes me comfortable when I travel and I have GSM coverage from few network operators in even smallest companies... plus roaming is not that much pain.

Sorry, but currently if Apple wants to keep exclusiveness with AT&T I might "graduate" to ELSE mobile phone and depending on its quality and features it may happen permanently. I will be keeping my iPod Touch for offline applications, music and movies, however.

maybe if there was more than one carrier in the US...why would you want practically the same spotty coverage at t-mobile at nearly double the price?

as soon as the iphone gets on other networks, watch at&t's iphone sales (and subscriber levels) tank. the price of keeping the iphone exclusive will be far too large for at&t to pay. apple can easily say that they can sell 40 million more iphones if it was available on other networks. that's BILLIONS in lost revenue, let's see at&t pony that up.

by the way, if you have t-mobile coverage in your area (not for everybody, you'll want to be in a well populated area), you should be looking at switching. get the nokia n900 with tons more features and then watch yourself save $10 a month by not having a contract, and that means you'll be paying just about half the price of at&t service, especially if you have a family plan. t-mobile is the only company that actually gives you a discount for not locking yourself into a 2 year contract. even if you don't supply your own phone, it's amazing how much more desirable lowly t-mobile's phones are compared to all the crap at&t has. i swear they want to make their other phones worse so you'll just want an iphone.

if you end up hating t-mobile, you can take your unlocked nokia n900 to at&t and waste your money.

i have a regualr ass LG LX5200 that i bought for $20 on ebay and an ipod touch. i have wifi everywhere i go (college student) so any smartphone is a stupid choice. i have no idea why cell phone companies want to force you into a data plan with more than half their phones. it's nickel and diming at its worst; every desirable phone they (at&t especially) have requires a data plan. i would have an iphone with at&t right now if they didn't force the unneeded data plan on me, but i guess they'd rather make $0 from me than $50 per month.

You're right, my biggest complaint is the ~$50 I spend on ATT's data plan. It's too much. When I had my original iPhone I was seriously considering getting a 'Dumb' phone and an iPod Touch. But then, I didn't want to carry two pieces of equipment around, having to charge/sync both at night, remember both in the morning and also I reasoned that the syncing of the iPhone, contacts numbers, visual voicemail, integrated email and now that texting is becoming more prevalent it was better than trying to save ~$50/mo. When running a business, as I do, that is communications intensive you don't mind paying for added convenience. It boils down to productivity and ease of use not always savings!

But again, you make good points and I don't mean to minimize them. ATT has let me down on coverage/pricing, but Apple has not let me down in providing a superior phone/system in the 3Gs!

I will say that where ATT excels is the 'Rollover Minutes' feature they kept after acquiring Cingular. All mobile companies should have this feature!

2) IT can be argued that it’s the iPhone that brought down the common unlimited data plan form $40-55 to a $30 average.

3) The only real plan benefit you get from others is from T-Mobile and Sprint because they are struggling. If T-Mobile gets the iPhone I would be surprised to see them stop offering the same deals they offer for other phones.

4) These highly subsidized smartphones are requiring a data plan from the carriers to cover their costs. I stated over 2 years ago that this move will likely get even more common and it has.

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I will say that where ATT excels is the 'Rollover Minutes' feature the kept when acquiring Cingular. All mobile companies should have this feature

I’d prefer to see stepped plans. Meaning, if you go over your plan’s allotment they bump you up to the next plan so that even if you are excessive in every category for a month your maximum cost will be nothing more than the unlimited plan’s cost, instead of some multi-thousand dollar cost because your kid got crazy with the SMS. This would give the consumer some piece of mind with their plan help to attract customers and low turn over.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

My two kids are getting a Touch for xmas (they're too young but I need my iPhone back!). When they graduate to a 'real' phone, why would they choose anything but an iPhone? The other thing is that with a new headset and Skype they can use the touch as a phone when within wifi reach. To them that is the same as having a cell phone.

To all you ATT haters, it is but temporary. By the time todays kids move on to iPhones VZ will be a carrier choice. What's happening now is not good but both Apple and VZ know that they are both loosing out. It won't last.

2) IT can be argued that it’s the iPhone that brought down the common unlimited data plan form $40-55 to a $30 average.

3) The only real plan benefit you get from others is from T-Mobile and Sprint because they are struggling. If T-Mobile gets the iPhone I would be surprised to see them stop offering the same deals they offer for other phones.

4) These highly subsidized smartphones are requiring a data plan from the carriers to cover their costs. I stated over 2 years ago that this move will likely get even more common and it has.

I’d prefer to see stepped plans. Meaning, if you go over your plan’s allotment they bump you up to the next plan so that even if you are excessive in every category for a month your maximum cost will be nothing more than the unlimited plan’s cost, instead of some multi-thousand dollar cost because your kid got crazy with the SMS. This would give the consumer some piece of mind with their plan help to attract customers and low turn over.

You're probably right, but still ~$120/mo seems exorbitant....

I like your idea of the 'stepped' plans as opposed to rollover minutes.

Maybe I'm not reading things right, but all of the graphs seem to show the iPhone market share shrinking since June. In the All Categories graph, for example, the iPhone starts at 57%, and drops to 50%, which is what, a 15% drop?

Meanwhile, Android goes from 10% to 14%, which is a 40% increase.

I dunno, but it seems that the headline picked the least interesting data to highlight. The precipitous descent of the iPhone and the double-digit ascent of Android each seem more important than the modest gains of the iTouch.

Maybe I'm not reading things right, but all of the graphs seem to show the iPhone market share shrinking since June. In the All Categories graph, for example, the iPhone starts at 57%, and drops to 50%, which is what, a 15% drop?

Meanwhile, Android goes from 10% to 14%, which is a 40% increase.

I dunno, but it seems that the headline picked the least interesting data to highlight. The precipitous descent of the iPhone and the double-digit ascent of Android each seem more important than the modest gains of the iTouch.

You in fact are not reading the stats correctly it is not marketshare as in number of instaloled units or units sold but the Flurry study which "relied on a sample size of over 3,000 applications used by 45 million consumers over four platforms: the iPhone OS (which includes the iPod touch), Google Android, BlackBerry and Java ME. More than 15 million "end user sessions" are tracked by programs that have the Flurry analytics software included."

What the iPhone/touch market needs are more choices for consumers. Sales of both products are high enough to support more rugged 'sport' models and for the iPod touch a model with GPS and VoIP designed especially for travelers.

The cell companies also need to get more creative. T-Mobile is helping by competing on price, as a number of posters have pointed out. But cell companies need to offer reasonably priced pay-per-byte plans. On the go, I don't need a data plan, much less a pricey unlimited one. I can wait until I get to a WiFi connection for heavy data uses. Instead, I need to be able to access small blocks of data on the go, typically to know whether buses are running on time.

This is exactly what happened to me... except I went one step further.

I went from an iPod touch 1G to an iPod touch 2G to an iPhone 3G S. I then ditched my Windows notebook PC for a MBP after being wowed by the iPhone.

Wow, that's interesting. As a Mac user from the start when I made my first computer purchase, I have to ask, and this does not so much apply to iPod Touch or iPhone, but your transition from a Windows laptop PC for a MBP, what experiences, positive or negative, have you encountered between using a PC OS and a Mac OS? I ask because I have a friend who was looking at laptops and I tried to sway them to a MB or MBP but they shunned the idea because the Public School System they worked for as teacher and principal used PC, had IT guys for PC, etc and they worried about "differences" despite my best effort. Another neighbor was looking to replace their desktop and again, I encourage them to go Mac but they were worried of a new OS way of doing things. I was even asked by them, "How do I get on the internet using a Mac?" Now that's a very basic issue and question and one might even equate "intelligent" level but I'm not going there, but if these perceived fears and differences are felt by the average consumer not willing to give Mac a try, makes one think Apple needs to revisit their tv commercials to "educate" the masses about what a Mac can do just like a PC, but only better (biased comment? guilty as charged). Maybe Apple can purchase the rights of that song that can be used as the "Theme" song, "Everything you can do, I can do better!" with regards to getting online, checking e-mail, IM, saving digital photos and movies, songs whatever else one might use their computer for.

As a former PC OS laptop user, what would you say to a fellow PC OS user who has concerns about "differences" or worried of "a new OS way of doing things" to try and convey that their worries are unfounded if they decide to go Mac? \

Ten years ago, we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Today we have no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash.

You in fact are not reading the stats correctly it is not marketshare as in number of instaloled units or units sold but the Flurry study which "relied on a sample size of over 3,000 applications used by 45 million consumers over four platforms: the iPhone OS (which includes the iPod touch), Google Android, BlackBerry and Java ME. More than 15 million "end user sessions" are tracked by programs that have the Flurry analytics software included."

Does that help clarify things for you?

I may have used a word of art incorrectly, but I think that I am conceptualizing correctly. By "marketshare", I meant "Share of the market using a particular device for the stated purpose" rather than "overall".

So, among gamers, the proportion using an iPhone seems to be shrinking. And for social networking, the proportion of iPhone users seems to be shrinking. For All Uses, the proportion using an iPhone seems to be shrinking.

One reason iPod Touch sold so many this year, or iTouch as many people are calling it, is because Apple gave them away this past summer when a customer bought a new computer. Actually, Apple offered a rebate, they didn't "give" them away. That way Apple can tout them as sales. I think that is a little sneaky and skews data.

I see there are a lot of positive comments about T-Moblie, here. I looked at T-Mobile, too. They had two problems for me. No coverage in National Parks such as Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Two, a lot of their phones have high SAR, radiation levels. (I know, AT&T has many, too.)

Rather than look up Yosemite to see if T-Mobile covered the park, the rep kept asserting that they had wide coverage and kept asking me to look at their map.

A new study of mobile device usage has found that the iPod touch is gaining in share, and suggests that the media player could eventually transition youth to the iPhone.

Not just youth. I had my touch for about 3 hours before I decided that my wife and I both just have to get iPhones. We'll wait until our current contract is up in August, but that $200 touch bought Apple about $1000 of eventual revenue from us.

What the iPhone/touch market needs are more choices for consumers. Sales of both products are high enough to support more rugged 'sport' models and for the iPod touch a model with GPS and VoIP designed especially for travelers.

No objections to that; I think it is a shame that Apple doesn't have built-in SIP support!

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...cell companies need to offer reasonably priced pay-per-byte plans. On the go, I don't need a data plan, much less a pricey unlimited one. I can wait until I get to a WiFi connection for heavy data uses. Instead, I need to be able to access small blocks of data on the go, typically to know whether buses are running on time.

I disagree on this one. What needs to be available are pre-paid SIM cards that you can easily top up. If you paid by the byte, it would look a lot like international roaming costs, at $20/MB. It is amazing how much data is used with a good smartphone; it is in the nature of the beast. Paying by the byte (or minute) just complicates matters. When I travel to countries that it is easy to get a SIM card, life is grand: Pay $10 for a SIM, plus a $10 top-up or so, and I have effectively unlimited access for a couple weeks. In contrast, pay T-Mo for WiFi and you are looking at $10 for an hour at the airport. That is the real disconnect!

I had a Touch for a year before I graduated to the iPhone. It was like iPhone training wheels.
I never considered the Touch a gaming device. The games for the most part are cute but too small to submerse myself into. It was the internet, mail and all the iPod features which I really liked. I now use the Touch primarily as my Apple TV remote.

The iPod Touch is a great device. I, however, think Apple has made a mistake by not keeping it's hardware identical to the iPhone, with the exception of phone components. For instance, the Touch should have the same camera as the phone. I, along with at least one other person I know, are not buying one for that reason.

I may have used a word of art incorrectly, but I think that I am conceptualizing correctly. By "marketshare", I meant "Share of the market using a particular device for the stated purpose" rather than "overall".

So, among gamers, the proportion using an iPhone seems to be shrinking. And for social networking, the proportion of iPhone users seems to be shrinking. For All Uses, the proportion using an iPhone seems to be shrinking.

I would think that this would be BIG BIG BIG news.

In every case that's because Touch use for the stated cases are growing faster than the iPhone, which is also growing. So there's been something of a shift in the mix of iPhone/Touch use patterns.

That's not BIG BIG BIG news the way I think you mean (iPhone market shrinking!), since the iPhone/Touch platform continues to grow rapidly.

They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.

I'm a business professional in my 30's and I'm not buying an iPhone for the obvious reasons.
1. I don't really need an iPhone.
2. 3 year contract is insane (here in Canada)
3. Way too expensive (data plans and carrier charges and taxes)
4. I don't need to shoot insanely poor photo's or video. I bought a $600 tiny pocket camera that takes awesome photo's and video.

I got an iPod Touch 64gig 2 months ago. It's great, twice the capacity, and does almost everything the iPhone does. wi-fi is easy to find almost everywhere. My cheap pay-by-the-second phone lets me make calls for $15 a month.

This survey starts on the premiss that everybody NEEDS an iPhone, and if you don't have one, your
either a child or teenager, or irrelevant.
It's a luxury device, not everybody needs a luxury device. Not owning a luxury device does not make one a teenager.

Maybe I'm not reading things right, but all of the graphs seem to show the iPhone market share shrinking since June. In the All Categories graph, for example, the iPhone starts at 57%, and drops to 50%, which is what, a 15% drop?

Meanwhile, Android goes from 10% to 14%, which is a 40% increase.

That is a metric for Android-focused sites to pump but on this site the increase in Touch over the iPhone is what is significant.

On top of that, percentages themselves mean nothing. If you put them into perspective you see the iPhone doubling its user sessions by 75 points while the Android only ending up with under 50 points by the end of the graph.

I fully expect to see Android outpace every device running iPhone OS. That means a lot faster growth they are getting now with their low user-base numbers. Its free, its open to any and every piece of HW out there, including netbooks, so there is no reason not to expect Apple to hold this position forever with a very limited selection of premium hardware.

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Originally Posted by piot

Edit your post and get rid of the spammer's links.

I really dont understand why people replay to spammers knowingly. Just report them with the button under their name =>

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

yes, get a Nokia and join an insignificant part of the 15% using non-Apple mobile products. When a company offers a couple of products that compete within an ocean of products, virtually all brought to us by manufacturers which predate Apple's entry into mobile, one cannot assume everyone blindly made the choice to go with Apple.

I think people know what they're doing. AT&T may not be great but it appears it's worth the compromise to avoid all the crap hardware out there. In this case, the hardware rules and that's what the survey shows.

The iPod Touch is a great device. I, however, think Apple has made a mistake by not keeping it's hardware identical to the iPhone, with the exception of phone components. For instance, the Touch should have the same camera as the phone. I, along with at least one other person I know, are not buying one for that reason.